Opae ula questions

LordJoshaeus · Jan 19, 2020

Hi everyone! Long time no post

I have a brine shrimp hatchery that I keep warm by placing it in a gallon minibow tank filled with water with an aquarium heater. The minibow is otherwise barren...it seems like a waste of space, but it's too small for fish. Thus, I was thinking about setting up an opae ula tank in the minibow. I have a few questions about them;

1 - Will they thrive and breed in full strength seawater?
2 - If they will do well in seawater, are there any macroalgae species that would thrive in the nutrient poor conditions that seem to prevail in good opae ula tanks?
3 - Could I use an air pump?
4 - How much/often should I feed the tank to promote the microfauna the shrimp rely on?
5 - Anything else I should know?

Thanks for the help

weamdog · Jan 19, 2020

1. I've read that they require more brackish water, but that never seamed to make sense considering their constantly changing environment. I'm currently running at 1.017
2. I have moss balls and chaeto in mine. The moss balls seems to be dying but the chaeto is doing fine.
3. An air pump would likely just increase evaporation. I have a 10g fluval tank that doesn't get much maintenance expect for topping off and cleaning the floss covering the pump. If you do run a pump, you'll need something similar because they like to hide and the babies are tiny. Technically, they can survive without a lot of circulation or not at all when you seen them in those enclosed environment torcher chambers.
4. I hardly ever feed the tank. They go around and eat algae off the glass and rocks. They will eat some other things such as flakes, but if you're running minimal maintenance then the water would get nasty quick.

I've tried these in a 40g tank before running air filters and could never get the babies carried to term. I think the key is give them enough light to grow algae and give them plenty places to hide. For instance, I can't keep them out of the overflow whether it be food or a nice place to hide. Since I've been lacking on maintenance, I haven't seen any babies, but then again they are difficult to see in a clean tank. I'm not sure how ell they would fair in a tank designed for sea monkeys, I have a 10w heater that probably doesn't work anymore because the tank is room temperature.

Knightwolf1.025 · Mar 31, 2020

I have kept opae ula in a standard 5g with a glass lid, decent light and a tiny hob filter for years, they have been reproducing quite steadily since I started the tank. The only maintenance I have had to do is top the tank off with RODI water about every 2 weeks and I rinse my filter sponges twice a year. I have never noticed any need to feed, whenever I have tried they seem to ignore the food. For substrate I use crushed coral and have gracilia macro and a Marimo moss ball that have done reasonably well. I keep my salinity at 15 ppt. Originally started with 5 opae and now have too many to count.